ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the science around human face-sensing abilities. It argues that modern research in face-perception is significant for the humanities and, particularly, architecture, planning, and aesthetics. A major point Eric Kandel makes is that the brain "reconstructs reality according to its own biological rules". From the 1970s to the 1990s a dominant view in the scientific community was that children required years of experience to attain adult-like facial-recognition capabilities. The advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the 1990s proved a game changer in terms of uncovering more of the brain's tactics for face-processing. Recent fMRI research has also found the location of other regions of the brain believed to be preset for viewing the body and a specialized area for viewing natural landscapes or interiors. For urban design and planning, the significance of face-processing in our mental apparatus has much broader implications.
